American Airlines
PARTNERING FOR SAFETY —
ON THE GROUND AND IN THE AIR
A 25% reduction in Lost Work Day cases and 40% reduction in Workers Compensation
costs saved American Airlines almost $70 million.
Challenge
In 2002, American Airlines (AA) experienced approximately 9,700 OSHA-recordable
injuries -- 75% of which resulted in lost work time. Valued employees were injured, and
AA was paying hundreds of millions of dollars in direct workers’ compensation costs.
In a letter to employees, then COO and now Chairman, President & CEO Gerard Arpey
stated: “Safety must be at the core of our operating philosophy because the product that
we sell to our customers depends on it.”
Solution
“We weren’t convinced that anyone could move the dial on
employee injuries. But the DuPont process – a thorough,
detailed, specific task- and action-oriented process –
drove the needed cultural and behavioral change
throughout our organization.”
— Bob Reding
Executive Vice President, Operations
American Airlines
“Our goal is to be the number one airline in terms of safety
for flights and employees. DuPont’s real hands-on
experience and their demonstrated success in workplace
safety and in our industry were key in our selection.”
— Peggy Sterling
Vice President of Safety, Health, Environment & Security
American Airlines
To improve workplace safety for all its employees and operations, AA leadership
decided to focus its efforts on: (1) reducing incidents and injuries; (2) involving
employees and creating a sense of teamwork in a safety-oriented environment;
(3) reducing workers’ compensation and other associated costs of incidents and injuries;
and (4) reducing damage to equipment and associated costs.
The company’s joint union and management leadership team sought a partner with the
ability to help AA build an effective safety management system and culture. AA turned to
DuPont, who had recently assisted Qantas Airways and American Eagle with their own
successful safety endeavors.
Peggy Sterling, Vice President of Safety, Health, Environment & Security for AA recalls,
“The competitive environment made it difficult for us to stay focused on getting it done by
ourselves, to really change how we think and act about safety. DuPont’s real hands-on
experience and demonstrated success in workplace safety and in our industry were key in
our selection.”
DuPont designed an assessment methodology that not only understood the American
Airlines safety culture and evaluated its operating environments, but defined a course of
action to dramatically improve performance.
Results
AA reduced injuries by 25% and workers’ compensation claims by 40%, saving the
company almost $70 million during the three-year period beginning in 2005.
The DuPont and AA partnership fulfilled AA’s obligation to protect the public at large, its
customers, and its employees and their families. It has also helped reduce the
significant indirect cost of injuries.
Here’s how they did it.
AMERICAN AIRLINES
PARTNERING FOR SAFETY — ON THE GROUND AND IN THE AIR
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How DuPont Helped American Airlines Achieve its
E Objectives
American Airlines management and unions jointly established the
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“Partnership for Safety.” DuPont aided this internal effort with training and
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infrastructure. AA and DuPont then began shifting the safety culture
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through a multi-phase process:
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• Creating awareness and building management support;
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• Developing the functional capability of the organization; and
•
Utilizing the functional capability for total performance.
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In the first phase, AA aligned employees
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on a common safety philosophy and
R an integrated
policy, and began to build
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safety management system.
system was based on DuPont’s
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essential elements of safety
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management. DuPont also helped
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deliver executive-level training for safety
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awareness and safety management
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techniques.
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The second phase entailed developing
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the functioning capability of the
organization in the FlightTService division
and at two key AA hubs N
-- Chicago
(ORD) and Dallas-Ft. Worth
E (DFW).
R the front line,
Dan Garton, Executive VP of Marketing, notes, “By involving
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DuPont got a great response which fit well with the AA collaborative
employee engagement model. DuPont’s discipline providedNus with a new
process and a new focus that we need to continue on our own.”
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The third phase of work focused on preventing incidents and injuries, and
eliminating the causes of injury. DuPont then helped developFmetrics to track
safety improvement throughout AA.
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R DuPont team
Bob Reding, Executive VP of Operations at AA, believes the
helped employees think about safety in a different way by developing a
“safety consciousness” – both on the job and at home. He says,
“DuPont
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helped us realize that the safety of our employees should be the highest
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level of priority – that’s what has contributed to a real ‘injury- and accidentF
free’ environment at AA.”
Call us today at
1-800-532-SAFE (7233)
or visit us at
www.safety.dupont.com
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Safety Results
The partnership achieved a 25% reduction in injuries and 40% in
subsequent workers compensation costs. AA saved almost $70MM
during the three-year period beginning in 2005.
Tom Langebahn, former Managing Director of Partnership for Safety,
sums it up for AA, “DuPont helped us understand the connection
between safety and running a successful operation. And they did it by
starting first with senior leadership and identifying for them what is a
world-class safety culture.”
Langebahn believes DuPont’s practical owner-operator experience
and confidence built trust within AA and helped drive change that
resulted in an overwhelming positive experience, with lots of continuing
progress. According to him, “DuPont had a good understanding of
our safety challenges and tailored the effort to meet those
challenges. Even though there was resistance to change across
many levels of the organization, the DuPont team was tenacious,
capable, and adaptive — a style that pushed and led AA to our
success.”
The AA Goal: Keeping Passengers and Employees Safe at
All Times
American Airlines, the world’s largest airline, has nearly 67,000
employees worldwide. On an average day, AA will fly about 270,000
passengers on more than 3,300 flights worldwide.
At American Airlines, no commitment is more important – or pursued
more pervasively or with greater energy, day after day – than its
commitment to the safety of customers and employees. Indeed, safety
is at the very core of the airline, as AA pursues the goal of being the
“Safest Airline in the Industry.”
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Copyright © 2008 DuPont. All rights reserved. The DuPont Oval Logo, DuPont™ and The miracles of science™ are registered trademarks or trademarks of E. I. du Pont de
R Eagle are registered trademarks of American Airlines, Inc. Qantas is a registered trademark of Qantas
Nemours and Company or its affiliates. AmericanAirlines and American
Airways Limited.
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